Materialists often portray themselves as champions of reason and deride religionists as peddlers of irrational beliefs. However, the very reason they claim to champion has no reason to exist in their worldview. Let’s see how.
Materialism holds that matter is all that exists. But matter has no consciousness and therefore no capacity to reason. If the whole universe has resulted from nothing but matter acting upon itself, then there’s no reason for it to have organized itself in way that is intelligible to our rational faculty. Even more fundamentally, if our intellectual faculty is made merely of matter, then there’s no reason it should have been arranged to include the ability to reason as a tool for discerning truth. Thus, materialism offers no reason for the existence of a rational order in the outer world and a rational capacity in the inner world.
So materialists claiming to be champions of reason are like illiterates claiming to be champions of literacy. Actually, materialists are in a more embarrassing position because whereas illiterates may well become literate, materialists cannot become rationalists without admitting the existence of non-material source of reason and thereby becoming non-materialists.
What is that non-material source of reason? The Supreme Absolute Truth, Krishna, who the Bhagavad-gita (10.08) indicates is the source of everything. It is he who creates and sustains the logical order found in the material world and it is he who has infused our intelligence with all its abilities including the rational ability.
Pertinently, the same verse declares that those who understand Krishna to be the source of everything become wise and thereafter wholeheartedly devote themselves to him. As wisdom includes rationality, wise devotees are actually refuters of irrational belief in materialism and champions of rational belief in the source and sustainer of rationality.
Leave A Comment